Change the SA password for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (MSDE)

To make this change, the first thing you need to do is access your Windows Server via “Remote Desktop“.

Once inside your server, open the Windows console (CMD) and run the following commands:

osql –E

Remember that they must be run from the SQL tools/binn folder.

This command will take you to the Microsoft SQL “prompt” using “Windows Integrated Authentication“, meaning that if you have logged in to the system as Administrator you will have administrative privileges on Microsoft SQL.

Then type the following to change the SA password:

sp_password NULL,'nuevo_password_sa',sa

Once you receive the message “Password Changed”, you will know that the password has been changed, and you can exit the Microsoft SQL “prompt” with the command:

exit

If you want to verify that everything worked correctly, you can exit the Microsoft SQL “prompt” and try to log in as SA with the following command:

osql -Usa